In a little over five hours Nancy Klees went from grandmother to grand-winner, in the Grand Rapids first annual marathon.
Coincidentally, the Halloween day run was her inaugural run, and she took first place in her age group.
‘It was just one of those spur of the moment things,? laughed Klees, 65.
On a dare from her son, Klees surprised herself when she took him up on a challenge to run with him in the marathon.
‘He’s a runner and has qualified for three marathons,? Klees said. ‘He asked me a couple of times to join him.?
Even though Klees has been an avid runner for the past 38 years, she first laughed at the idea of joining her young son in the marathon. However, a conflicting bible study class schedule unwittingly pushed her closer to the run.
Taking the class meant Klees had to change her 38-year running schedule of three to four miles, every other day.
Now she had to run days back to back and found it difficult to manage the miles.
‘I found I just couldn’t run back to back,? said Kless.
Remaining on the daily schedule, each time she went out for a run she forced herself to exceed the three miles and the next thing she knew she was running up to six miles a day. So the next time her son teased her about joining him in the Grand Rapids Marathon, Klees surprised both herself and her son by saying yes.
‘I told him I would do it,? she beamed. ‘And when I told my husband and other people nobody said I was a crazy old lady so I did it,? she laughed.
Two short weeks before race day Klees increased her running time to a personal record of 59 hours a week. One week before the race, however, her longest single run was 16 miles, almost half the distance of the 26.2 mile Grand Rapids course.
With a smile Klees said the 16 miles was an improvement over her normal distance and decided to stay in the race.
‘I just went into it with the attitude that I would do the best I could and that’s all,? Klees said.
Halloween day, five hours and 30 minutes after crossing the starting gate, tiny Nancy Klees crossed the finish line a winner.
‘I did it’I couldn’t believe it but I finished the race,? she ended.